In Nascar Chairman Brian France’s speech to the media, France said that Nascar would be looking to "get back to basics" and does not plan on making major changes this season. Following France’s radical changes which have seen the sport nose dive in the past two years, we’re thinking that’s a good idea. But we’d also think that maybe these could be some positive changes to get the sport back on track:
Qualifying
-We were happy to see the new rule which would force all cars/trucks not locked into the top 35 in points to qualify in a block so as to limit any unfair advantages, but here’s another idea, how about the fastest 43 cars get in on time.
Points
-We love that they awarded an extra points to the winner preventing both the winner and second place finisher from receiving the same amount of points, but what if the winner got an additional 25 points and those drivers who do not finish in the top 30, receive the same amount of points thus stopping the practice of badly damaged cars slugging around on the track dropping fluid and parts which bring out cautions or worse, effect the outcome of the race.
The Chase
-Not that we’ve ever been big fans of this whole “playoff” system in Nascar (we may be one of the few people who like it less than Jeff Gordon and he’s been cheated out of the Championship twice) but if you’re so gung-ho on this whole thing, we’d like to add a few tweaks of our own. Bring the Chase back to the top 10 drivers. It was obvious the additional 2 drivers were out of the Chase after the checkered flag dropped in New Hampshire.
-Award a separate points system for Chasers than other drivers thus eliminating the egg-shell driving, non-Chasers may have around Chasers during the final 10 races. Award 15 points for the winner, 10 for second place, 8 for third, 6 for fourth, 5 for fifth, 4 for sixth, 3 for seventh, 2 for eighth through tenth. This adds a bonus for the winner and would keep the Chase close. Since at any point there could be only be a 13 point swing. Although we would still like to revert back to the Championship decided on the whole 36 race season instead of just 10 races from September to November.
Racetracks
-Bring back Rockingham! And stop moving races to places that cannot support two races, yeah we’re talking to you California. You were so cool selling out that one race a year, but as soon as you went to two races, all of sudden your seats became empty.
-Let’s stop awarding second dates to tracks and start going to new places like the Northwest or maybe even Canada, but make sure those tracks are not 1.5 - 2 mile flat tracks. How about another banked short track.
Races
-No more 500 mile races. I watch other forms of motorsports particularly the IRL and the one thing I enjoy most is that the races are over rather quickly instead of investing four hours on the couch. Keep the Daytona 500 at 500 miles because we’re into tradition and the IRL does run a race called the Indianapolis 500. Otherwise, there is no reason to have the races be soooo long especially at Pocono and even at Bristol, Richmond and Martinsville.
-Have all the start times be the same. Or make all east coast and mid-west start times at 1 PM and all west coast start times at 4 PM. Especially during the football season (when Nascar historically sees a decline in ratings, hence the Chase) we find ourselves watching the Giants game and then forgetting to switch over to watch the Nascar race when it finally gets underway at 2:30. And can they make the pre-race show shorter? (And yes, we saw this suggestion in the NY Times, but it’s a really great idea)
-Announce the reason for every caution, whether it be obvious like a crash or engine failure or obscure like that random piece of garbage on the track that you thought was metal. And if you called a caution because you didn’t want Dale, Jr. to go a lap down, make up whatever excuse you want, but just tell people why there was a caution.
Miscellaneous
-When you penalize a team, tell the public why and don’t use “actions detrimental to Nascar.” It would also behoove you to have corresponding penalties to various policy violations. Part of the reason why people are starting to turn away from Nascar is because people believe that different teams and drivers are treated differently. If everything is spelled out, then there is no way people can say that about Nascar.
Even if Nascar, isn’t so keen making these kinds of changes, we’ll still find ourselves tuning in every week.
It’s been fun blogging with you,
Kate
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